


Lightning in a Bottle

by flowercrowncurls



Category: 5 Seconds of Summer (Band)
Genre: Based on Song Lyrics, Fluff, M/M, Road Trips
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-26
Updated: 2015-02-26
Packaged: 2018-03-15 07:58:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,274
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3439547
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flowercrowncurls/pseuds/flowercrowncurls
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Road Trip?” Is the first thing Calum says when Ashton picks up the phone, excitement outweighing his annoyance that it took the boy nearly five full rings before he’d answered. </p><p>“What…” Ashton drawls the word out slowly and Calum’s fingers tighten around his phone, hands shaking slightly.   And there is a sudden nervousness settling deep in his bones that he hasn’t felt in years. “Well, Hello to you too.”  Calum turns to look at the clock, slightly confused by how deep the older boy’s voice sounds and the way his words sort of slur and drag together.  </p><p>3:23AM is flashing back at him in bright red and he feels a little bad for a second, but then excitement and want and ashtonashtonashton has the guilt slipping away just as quickly as it’d come.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lightning in a Bottle

**Author's Note:**

> Sort of based on the song Lightning in a Bottle by The Summer Set.

 

 

Ashton loves touring.  It’s one of his favorite things, playing their music for people that love and enjoy it with three of his favorite people in the world.  It’s a rush.  Seeing all those faces in a crowd singing along to something you made, something you wrote, something you put part of yourself into.  And it’s humbling at the same time, seeing them cry or laugh or jump around with someone they love.   

But it’s tiring.  Touring is exhausting and by the last week or so it starts to drag, regardless of how much you love it and how much you want to make this as good, as energetic, as perfect as the very beginning months ago it still gets to you.  It’s impossible to outrun the exhaustion forever, coffee and Red Bull only goes so far in replacement to actual sleep. 

So when the last show ends and the prospect of _home_  becomes much more of a reality than ever before Ashton feels a certain sort of peace settle over him all the way down to his bones.  Home has become a lot of different places over the years, but Sydney will always feel like _home_  for all of them. 

Getting to go back has them buzzing the entire flight, none of them really able to get any type of real sleep.  Ashton feels jumpy underneath the initial calm that comes with knowing he’s going to be seeing his mother, his siblings, his friends, his unmoving unchanging bed.  

  

Calum spends the first handful of days snuggling into the familiar warmth of his parents, sleeping for hours and hours in his own bed, eating his mom’s home cooked food, walking around the familiar streets he grew up on aimlessly. 

He locks himself out of his own house, which he finds to be almost as amusing as it is annoying and completely unsurprising when he listens to Ashton laughing hysterically through the phone, because if anyone would manage it apparently it would be him.  Calum tries not to take any offense to the older boy’s unwanted opinion and it becomes exceedingly easy to do when Ashton’s booming laughter trickles off into a silly high pitched giggle. 

He gets caught in the rain which he finds annoying for all of 10 seconds before he’s smiling because it’s just such a normal thing to happen, and he doesn’t have to worry about his clothes getting wet or his hair getting messed up.  It’s a normal average thing that happens to normal average people and so Calum tilts his head back towards the sky and lets the rain drench his hair, his clothes.  It feels nice not have to worry.  And yeah, maybe he stomps into a puddle or two before he heads home because there’s no one to yell at him but that’s nobody else's business. 

He lays around for an entire 24 straight hours never putting on anything more than a pair of boxers. And then spends the next out of the house just to see the town that hasn’t really changed at all.  He spends time just getting re-associated with everything, burning already known images back into the forefront of his mind to carry with him when he has to leave once again. 

But, by the end of the second week he’s craving something more.  Mostly he’s just missing Ashton something crazy, but that’s a little harder to admit sometimes so he tells himself he’s just feeling restless and ignores it.  

He doesn’t even make it another 48 hours before he throws in the figurative towel and reaches for his phone, giddily pacing around his room as he listens to the ringing coming through the tiny speaker. 

“Road Trip?” Is the first thing Calum says when Ashton picks up the phone, excitement outweighing his annoyance that it took the boy nearly five full rings before he’d answered. 

“What…” Ashton drawls the word out slowly and Calum’s fingers tighten around his phone, hands shaking slightly.   And there is a sudden nervousness settling deep in his bones that he hasn’t felt in years. “Well, Hello to you too.”  Calum turns to look at the clock, slightly confused by how deep the older boy’s voice sounds and the way his words sort of slur and drag together.  

3:23AM is flashing back at him in bright red and he feels a little bad for a second, but then excitement and want and _ashtonashtonashton_ has the guilt slipping away just as quickly as it’d come.  

“Hi baby.” He barely takes a breath between words, before he’s spitting out his question without further explanation yet again "Road Trip?”  Ashton laughs this time though, something low and intimate that has Calum’s stomach churning and his cheeks flushing red.  He rocks onto the balls of his feet, tries not to ask the question again, tries to give the older boy a moment to think.  But he’s too impatient. Electricity coursing underneath the surface of his skin making him twitchy.  “Baby,” he whines. 

“Yeah, okay” Ashton manages to voice around a laugh, his voice a little lower than usual and Calum wishes not for the first time that he could bottle up the sound keep it for a rainy day. 

“Great!” 

Calum hangs up right away, blinking in confusion when his phone lights up and Backseat Serenade is blaring out into his otherwise silent room.  It takes him a moment of fumbling fingers before he answers.  

“Hello?" 

“Babe,” Ashton’s voice curls sharply with frustration.  “Why the fuck did you hang up on me?” He can hear the obvious annoyance that paints itself across the boy’s usually sweet voice and Calum bites at the corner of his mouth, chewing on his lip for a moment. 

“Sorry!  Didn’t even realize I had” He pauses, insecurity curling in his chest. “Honestly."

“For some reason that doesn’t really make me feel better…” Ashton trails off and Calum can picture him shaking his head, fond smile stretched over his mouth, eyes soft, curls bouncing around his head like a halo of gold.  The image burns itself into the back of his mind, feels like a punch in the gut as he struggles to remember the words he wants to speak.    

“Sorry,” Calum laughs then, calms when Ashton’s laughter travels through from the other end unchecked.  “Road trip though?  You really want to go right… I mean a bunch of the guys are game.” Ashton knows without asking that Luke and Michael aren’t included in that, and while he does miss the other two younger boys getting Calum to himself is something that rarely happens these days so he can’t bring himself to be all that sad about it. 

“Course, I’d go anywhere with you.” 

“So fucking cheesy,” Calum complains, face heating up and he’s never been so glad for the distance between them before as the blush travels down his neck.  He pulls at his sweatshirt, hands restless and he rocks on his feet back and forth, back and forth.   

“Don’t swear!” Calum ignores the hypocritical boy with an ease that only comes with practice, and lots of it. 

“I’m definitely hanging up on you on purpose this time!"

“Wh-"  Ashton doesn’t get to finish whatever he was going to say because Calum disconnects the phone call once again, rolling his eyes when he gets a series of angry text messages in a row.  And no one needs to know if he purposely ignores the texts until morning, pretending to have fallen asleep just to piss off the older boy. 

And Calum definitely doesn't laugh when he wakes up to ten messages awaiting him, the fondness he feels for Ashton nearly doubling in his chest as he laughs his way through them all.  The older boy goes from annoyed, to angry, to worried in the span of ten messages that really don’t say much at all in terms of words but speak volumes to Calum anyway. 

  

Ashton regrets letting Calum be in charge of the radio less than 45 minutes in, the boy’s played nothing but obnoxious bubble gum pop songs since they left his driveway.  He’s regretting a lot of his life choices as Calum sticks his head out the open window screaming the lyrics as the wind whips through his hair.  He has a feeling the boy is doing it ultimately to annoy him. 

“Keep your limbs in the fucking car you crazy bastard,” Ashton yells over the music.  Calum doesn’t move and Ashton doesn’t know if he really can’t hear or if he's just purposely ignoring him.  He figures it’s probably the later because Calum has a thing for purposely pissing him off.  “CALUM!” 

“Yeah yeah yeah,” Calum grumbles folding himself back into his seat, rolling the window back up partially.  Ashton fights the urge to roll his eyes, something he’s done far too much since getting together with Calum.  He reaches over instead, dropping his palm on the boy’s thigh and squeezing softly, smiling when Calum links their fingers.  

Minutes later Calum is turning in his seat, staring at Ashton and holding the older boy’s hand in his own tightly.  Ashton rolls his eyes when Calum reaches for his iPod, flipping rapidly through songs before stopping suddenly.  Ashton doesn’t pay much attention to the song coming out of the speakers until Calum starts to softly sing along. 

‘ _Out in the wild, Party in nowhere land_. _We start a fire,_ _Sparklers in every hand. No phones let go cut all the strings tonight.'_

It’s something upbeat and catchy, the sort of song that you end up singing along to without even realizing it, lyrics that get stuck in your head easily enough to remember the next time it plays.  Ashton sort of likes it but he’ll never admit it, especially not to Calum who likes to torture him with _I told you so's_. 

But more than the song itself, he likes the way the younger boy sounds, voice soft and deep as it curls around the lyrics, carries with the lift of the chorus as he tilts his head back veins on his neck popping out slightly.  It’s a sight Ashton’s been privy to time and time again, Calum lost in a song with nothing else but the shift of the beat and the words of the lyrics on his mind. 

Ashton is caught by surprise when Calum leans over when they’ve stopped at a light, hand gripping his chin and eyes alight with something Ashton has no name for. 

“We’re making out, life’s never felt so good” Calum sings against Ashton’s mouth, lips rubbing together softly before the boy’s free fingers curl into the hair at the base of Ashton’s skull and smashes their lips together tightly, teeth clacking.  Ashton's panting when the younger boy pulls back; eyes crinkled at the corners, red red lips split into a wide smile.  He rubs his thumb under Ashton’s eye softly, the gesture causing a tightening in the older boy’s chest for a moment.  

Calum feels the itch under his skin, this push and pull of wanting Ashton _closerclosercloser_.  But he settles a little further away, dark eyes still trained on Ashton’s face as the older boy looks back at him with glazed over eyes and swollen mouth, he tugs at a stray curl unable to help himself. 

“Lights green,” Calum whispers softly, pulling back entirely turning to look out the window and mumbling along to the song quietly. Ashton’s large hand is still hot spread over his thigh, fingers digging into the soft flesh there. 

It takes hours before they get where they’re going. Hours of Calum switching between too hyper to contain as he screams lyrics sticking his head out the window staring at everything they pass by with wide interested eyes, and so sleepy he looks like a small child curled up in the front seat of Ashton’s car, knees pulled to his chest head dropping sideways towards the window every few seconds. 

 

The first thing they do is get lost in the wilderness.  Not lost in the sense of they don’t know where the are, because they do.  But lost in the sense of disconnected from the world as they travel down the designated path.  

It doesn’t take long for Calum’s previously fast pace to fade, initial enthusiasm giving way to exhaustion as the arches of his feet start to ache a little bit, his breathing slightly labored, sweat dripping down his back uncomfortably.  He peeks over his shoulder at Ashton, tripping over nothing when he watches a bead of sweat rolling down the older boy’s neck and over collarbone a little too closely.  

“Alright?” Dylan asks, voice amused as Calum glares over at him.  He gets a bright smile in return that has him rolling his eyes. 

“Fine,” Calum mutters, embarrassment painting his cheeks pink beneath the sheen of sweat.  He shakes his head, running his fingers through his damp hair and tilting his head towards the sky. 

“Just go back there,” Calum gets an elbow to his side when he ignores the other.  “You know, we don’t care, right?” 

“I… Yeah,” Calum voices slowly, even though it feels like a half truth because he hadn’t really known.  He’d figured that it wouldn’t be a big thing, it’s always sort of been Ash and Cal now they’re just more like AshandCal. "I’m good.” 

“Idiot, go.” Calum stumbles, elbow nudging into the spaces between his ribs a little too harshly.  He huffs, annoyance painting across his face before it gives way to fondness because his friends are the best.  He slows his pace purposely, making his way back to Ashton who instantly offers him a bright dimpled smile but Calum wants more. 

He wants more and he suddenly realizes that he can have more, that he can take and do what he wants here, now.  He laughs to himself, Ashton shooting him a concerned look that only causes the soft chuckles to double in volume.  Calum shakes his head, holding up his hand and Ashton just shrugs, continuing down the trail with Calum following along, struggling to catch his breath around the laughter that just won’t stop. 

He jogs slightly, catching back up to Ashton and throwing his arms around the boy’s shoulders, pressing his chest tightly against the drenched back of the older boy’s shirt.  Ashton stumbles slightly. 

“Hey!” Ashton whines, righting his feet and trying to shake the boy off.  

“Hey,” Calum whispers, pressing a kiss against sweaty neck, running his tongue across the salty liquid pulling back slightly when Ashton goes tense. 

“Calum,” Ashton starts slowly, hands lifting to curl over the other’s hands.  Calum thinks for a moment the boy is going to shake him off, tell him they can’t do that here but he doesn’t, instead his fingers tighten and he whispers out softly, almost too low for Calum to even hear, “Jump babe."

And Calum does, in more ways than one.  In that moment anything feels possible, so Calum throws away whatever lingering worries he’d been still holding onto and jumps, feet leaving the ground right alongside his heart. 

“We’re gonna be really sweaty,” Ashton says a few moments later.  Calum shrugs, pressing his fingers into the dip of Ashton’s collarbone and dragging it through the sweat pooling there.  Ashton makes a half choked noise in the back of his throat that Calum doesn’t really understand the meaning of, but doesn’t care enough in that moment to question either.  

“We’re already really sweaty.” 

“Yeah,” Ashton replies, but it feels like they’d been having a different conversation.  Calum presses a kiss against the other’s cheek, pressing hard enough that his teeth dig painfully into the inside of his lips.  Ashton makes a low noise, head tilting slightly but Calum doesn’t pull away, doesn’t move back just presses harder for a moment, trailing his mouth over stubble covered jaw that burns against his lips,  biting at the delicate skin stretched over the boy’s neck.   

No one looks twice at the mark he leaves but Ashton wears it proudly head held high and slight smile to the corner of his mouth.  And that does something to Calum’s stomach, something warm and fuzzy and heavy, something he’s familiar with but never been able to put words to.  

  

Ashton is leaning back on his elbows, hot sand warming the skin on his arms as he watches Calum splash around in the ocean.  Even from here, yards away, Ashton can see the smile stretched across the younger boy’s face, can hear his laughter as it rings out above the crashing waves.  He chuckles to himself as Bryan blindsides Calum and they go down under the water in a tangle of flailing limbs only to pop back up seconds later shaking the water from their hair and laughing hard enough they nearly topple over again.  He eventually leans back, spreading himself over their towels and nodding off in the warmth of the sun.   

He’s startled awake sometime later by Calum dropping down on top of him, warm and wet and flailing.  Ashton tries to sit up but the weight of the boy keeps him pinned down as he blinks open his eyes slowly, vision hazy before it rights itself a moment later.  Calum is laughing, water dripping from the ends of his hair falling down onto Ashton’s bare chest.  

“Hi,” Calum breathes, mouth split into a wide smile and eyes so bright Ashton gets lost in them for a moment.  He reaches up, running his fingers over the boy’s face.  

“Hey.” 

Calum leans down, sliding their mouths together and he tastes like sun and salt and something so distinctly Calum that Ashton just wants more of.  He gets his hands on the boy, warm fingers digging into damp skin as he rolls Calum onto his back and presses down into the boy, pinning him against the warmth of the sand. 

Calum lays there face open and heart wide as he stares up at Ashton, waiting.  

“We really shouldn’t” Ashton murmurs, even as he leans down to press kisses against wet skin.  

“Oh but we really should,” is Calum’s cheeky reply and it’s enough, it’s more than enough for Ashton to forget about everything but the boy beneath him, kissing him roughly until they’re both left breathless.  

 

They get caught unaware by a sudden downpour and Ashton blames Calum 100%.  He’d been saying for the past 20 minutes that it looked like rain was coming but Calum kept ignoring him, waving him off while repeatedly calling him a grumpy old man. He’s like freedom personified as he runs down the beach with his arms thrown in the air, face bright as he screams his delight in a chorus of giggles that fan out towards the sky. 

Ashton follows along at a much more sedate pace, feet dragging as he starts to looking more and more like a grumpy drowned kitten.  His hair is falling into his eyes curls dripping water everywhere, obscuring his vision slightly but he can still see Calum bouncing here and there a few yards down the beach not a care in the world.  Ashton tries to pay more attention the way Calum’s laughter dances along with the sound of the rain and the crashing of the waves and worry less about the way his shirt is clinging uncomfortably over his shoulder, heavy as it collects more water every second that ticks by. 

Calum remains unaffected as he flies across the sand like lightening, leaving behind bare footprints in the sand as he literally runs out of his shoes as he spins in circles near the ocean’s edge.  His laughter suddenly crashes loud and clear through the sound of the rain and the wind and the waves, Ashton finds his shoulders loosening as the sound caresses his skin. His jeans are soaked through but he can’t even bring himself to care when Calum launches himself at the older boy all long limbs and cold lips and dripping hair.  

They run and spin and dance hand in hand rain beating down around them, blanketing them from the world outside just the two of them.  They get lost in the moment, in the feeling of one another, in the love that beats steadily in their hearts and the promises that silently escape from between softly shaking lips.  

The water remains, even when the rain begins to slow, clinging to their clothes and hair and skin like it’s always belonged there, rolling down the curve of cheek and pooling in the dip of collarbone. 

They build an obnoxiously large bonfire on the beach when rain finally gives way to a clear sky and brings with it a chilly night breeze that ruffles through their hair.  Lighting sparklers has never felt so fun as the sun finally sets and they find themselves running around screaming at the stars exploding across the darkened night sky. 

Someone pulls a guitar from a car, shoving it between Calum’s hands, laughing when the boy makes an annoyed noise but starts strumming at the strings anyways.  And it comes so naturally, like breathing as his fingers glide over string and note with such precise familiarity its impossible not to realize the talent the boy possesses. 

They sing loudly and purposely off key, voices cracking and popping as they find they can’t stop laughing; at nothing, at everything, at life.  They yell, they dance, they drink.  They dig bare toes into damp sand, strip down to nothing and leap laughing into almost too cold water.  They sprint up and down the sand, exhaustion nothing but a distant memory and responsibility feels a thousand miles away.

And it feels so close to absolute freedom when Ashton cuddles into Calum’s side that he almost never wants to leave this place.   A sense of calm settling all the way down to the core of his bones as he soaks up the warmth of the boy curled in his lap, it feels a little like drowning and a little like floating on the surface of something bigger than anything he’s ever known before. 

Somehow they end up in the back of the car, too long limbs tangled together. 

And Ashton finds himself attempting to wiggle away from Calum’s grabby hands, the boy’s fingers still cold from the beer he’d just been holding.  He laughs when the younger boy makes an annoyed noise and grabs  at his arm yet again, cold fingers digging into the skin stretched over his forearm.  

Calum makes some weird half victorious sound as he hauls Ashton in closer to him, fingers tracing up over muscle.  Ashton bends his arm, flexing just because he can.  Calum swats at his arm, looking up at him from underneath messy fringe, eyes narrowed slightly.  He lets his arm sag down into Calum’s hold, flinching when calloused fingers run over the sensitive skin on the inside of his bicep. 

Ashton has no clue where the marker comes from, but suddenly there is wet coolness dragging over his skin and he tries not to jerk away, curiously trying to get a look at what the other boy is doing.  Ashton knows he probably shouldn’t let the boy doodle on his skin with a permanent marker because there really is no telling what Calum would actually draw, but he can’t bring himself to make the boy stop. 

Calum writes his love into the soft tanned skin, sealing it with an X and an O. 

Pressing promises to the newly marked skin between elbow and shoulder but more importantly between barely there kisses that drag and catch.  There’s nothing but black ink smudges of confession left behind when he pulls away, his eyes are a soft sort of shy around the edges when he looks up and is met by his favorite sight, Ashton’s dimpled cheeks and wavy hair falling into hazel eyes that shine as bright as the stars at midnight. Calum’s written too many lines about this sight alone, enough lyrics to file a notebook or two just about the way Ashton looks in love, soft and all his. 

Ashton doesn’t look at his arm, curiosity fading away as he suddenly feels like he already knows. Instead leans forward to press his own promises against the younger boy’s upturned mouth, kissing and licking and biting at pillow soft lips until both of their mouths are bright red and bruising. 

 

Calum curls into the warmth of Ashton in the back of the car, staring out the open trunk at the sun just starting to rise.  He muffles a giggle when Ashton whines and buries his face into a blanket, he digs his phone out from beneath a pile of clothes wiggling his way out of the car and taking a picture of Ashton as the sun shines across his hair, light reflecting off the strands of gold. He smiles to himself, tucks the phone back away and leans against the side of the car watching the sky as it lightens with the new year, and he’s not sure how but he thinks this year may just be better than the last. 

Calum’s long since thrown his heart in the air. 

Maybe he’d given it away too easily to the boy beside him.  And maybe he'd taken that leap into something before really thinking it all through.  But he’s never had to really think much about it because Ashton’s been there over and over and over again to catch him and his heart every single time he makes that jump. 

He presses a kiss against Ashton’s cheek whispering softly into the silence of the morning “ _Never change who you are_.” 

 


End file.
